We have just released VPOP3 version 6.0 build 2644.
People with software maintenance or priority support contracts which expire on or after 6th February 2013 can upgrade to this version free of charge.
The main differences between 6.0 and 5.0 are:
- Configurable bandwidth limits for VPOP3 services
- POP3 service can ‘hold’ messages rather than delete them, as a crude backup facility
- Have options to hold messages for a certain time once they arrive in the outqueue, and to delete them if they have been in the outqueue for a long time. Eg, you could say to hold messages for 10 minutes after they are sent, so that there is chance for a message to be deleted before being sent, or you could say that messages should be held for 10 days, so that they have to be manually released before they can be sent. This can be set globally or for individual users, or even scripted using Lua
- Support mass deletions/holds for outqueue messages, using searches to be able to filter messages to hold/delete
- Add security lockouts to IMAP4/Webmail/POP3 for IP addresses which repeatedly attempt to login using bad details
- Lots of improvements to CalDAV support for better compatibility with iPads, Macs, Android phones and other devices/software
- Improvements to Webmail
- Make it easier to store the Archive main store on a network share
- Can Pause/Unpause scheduling from the status monitor
- Some improvements to Download Rules
- And lots more
Licencing
We have changed the way the licencing works in version 6 onwards. In previous versions we issued a new licence key for each major upgrade and aimed to release a major upgrade every year to 15 months.
This was causing issues for some people as when we added new features, people wanted those new features sooner and were having to wait until the next major release. So, what we are doing now is we are going to be making more releases over the year. People will be able to download any version which is released during the lifetime of their software maintenance.
Note that there will not be a new licence key for each release of VPOP3, this would require several new licence keys issued over a year, which would be hard for everyone involved to manage. So, the licence keys issued for VPOP3 version 5 will work with later versions as well, as long as the software maintenance was active at the time of release. The software licence will be checked during the installation to make sure it is valid for that release.
If you go to the My Account section on our website, and look at your existing licence keys, it will tell you which is the latest version you are allowed to use with your licence.
For most users, it will be essentially the same as before with one year’s upgrades included, but with more frequent releases.
Questions and Answers
Here are some frequently asked questions, and other anticipated questions.
Does this mean that VPOP3 is now sold as a subscription?
No, once you have purchased a VPOP3 licence, you can use it forever. The only thing is you can’t download upgrades released after your software maintenance has expired.
What if I need to reinstall VPOP3 after our software maintenance has expired?
You will be able to download old releases of VPOP3, just the same as you can currently download versions 1 to 5 from our website.
What if a major bug is found in the software just after we have downloaded it and our software maintenance has expired?
If a major bug is found in a new release, we will release a bug fix for it, and back-date the release date so that anyone who downloaded the buggy version will be able to download the fixed version.
Note that this will not apply to cosmetic bugs, or to obscure bugs which have been undetected in quite a few versions for a while. In that case, we will treat backdating released bug fixes on a case-by-case basis. This is the same as previously, where there have been some obscure bugs in version 2 which were only discovered after the release of version 5, several years later. We have not fixed those in version 2, but have put the fixes in version 5 or 6.
Do I need to have a software maintenance subscription?
If you want to keep with the latest version of VPOP3, then you should have a software maintenance subscription, but if you are happy with the version you have, and do not want to keep updating, then you can let the software maintenance lapse, and continue using your current version of VPOP3. If you wish to get an updated version later on, you can purchase a version upgrade at that point.